Italy shore excursions are restricted to cruise guided excursions.

[euro cruiser]

Actually, I never found anything official from the Italian government restricting travel by cruise passengers.  I looked through the Ministry of Health web site and a few others but never came across any mention of cruise passengers and excursions.  I also checked a few Italian cruise web sites, like this one, and while there was discussion about the limitation to cruise line excursions no one mentioned a government regulation as the reason.

 

MSC, one of the Italian lines, has a mention on their web site that passengers can only take their excursions in order to maintain their health and safety standards, but does not cite any government regulation as the reason.

 

On another thread here someone posted a link to an Italian site but nowhere in that link was any regulation mentioned.

 

So I don't know what to believe.  It could be real, certainly there are hundreds of thousands of web pages associated with the Italian government and I only did a surface check.  Or it could be the cruise lines' way of trying to allow customers to have something like a normal cruise experience while also minimizing the risk of bringing covid onto their ships.

[ECCruise]

14 minutes ago, euro cruiser said:

Actually, I never found anything official from the Italian government restricting travel by cruise passengers.  I looked through the Ministry of Health web site and a few others but never came across any mention of cruise passengers and excursions.  I also checked a few Italian cruise web sites, like this one, and while there was discussion about the limitation to cruise line excursions no one mentioned a government regulation as the reason.

 

MSC, one of the Italian lines, has a mention on their web site that passengers can only take their excursions in order to maintain their health and safety standards, but does not cite any government regulation as the reason.

 

On another thread here someone posted a link to an Italian site but nowhere in that link was any regulation mentioned.

 

So I don't know what to believe.  It could be real, certainly there are hundreds of thousands of web pages associated with the Italian government and I only did a surface check.  Or it could be the cruise lines' way of trying to allow customers to have something like a normal cruise experience while also minimizing the risk of bringing covid onto their ships.

Since every cruise line currently or having sailed  in Italy--Celebrity, NCL, Azamara, MSC, Viking, Aida, and every other line,  has exactly the same mandates (only ship excursions) there but NOT in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and on and on, I am going to take their word for it that it is a government mandate.  As well as information from my contact in Livorno, who lives and breathes by booking tourists on private arrangements there who absolutely says it is mandated by the government. 

If they remove it, all is good.  If not, there is absolutely nothing that I can do about it and will take the ship's tours that we have booked in the 5 Italian ports.

[cruisemom42]

7 hours ago, ECCruise said:

 As well as information from my contact in Livorno, who lives and breathes by booking tourists on private arrangements there who absolutely says it is mandated by the government. 

 

Could you ask your contact in Livorno to point us to a source?

[ECCruise]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Could you ask your contact in Livorno to point us to a source?

It's not that important to me, actually. If she and like 10 cruise lines say it's so, that's enough for me. 

Besides, if we know the source, what are we going to do about it?  Fight with the Security staff?  They won't let you off the ship. Case closed. 

[steamboats]

BTW, this is the latest decreto valid since Oct 26th til Dec 15th. It does not mention cruises but there are a couple of older decretos which are still valid. So I don´t know whether the one mentioning cruises is still valid or not.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

And here´s the old one - article 53 No. 5.

 

steamboats

[cruisemom42]

10 hours ago, ECCruise said:

It's not that important to me, actually. If she and like 10 cruise lines say it's so, that's enough for me. 

Besides, if we know the source, what are we going to do about it?  Fight with the Security staff?  They won't let you off the ship. Case closed. 

 

It's not a matter of "fighting" anything.

 

I think if someone posted that the US is not allowing cruise ships to do X, Y, or Z, people would want to know where the decree is coming from and what it actually says. It's just the same here. 

[ECCruise]

10 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

It's not a matter of "fighting" anything.

 

I think if someone posted that the US is not allowing cruise ships to do X, Y, or Z, people would want to know where the decree is coming from and what it actually says. It's just the same here. 

Sorry, but I can't go around in circles with something I do not have any power to affect.  It doesn't matter where the edict comes from.  It is in place.  There is nothing I can do about it.  I would much prefer it to NOT be in force, but it is.  Don't have the time to do research to find a source.  Or to yell into the void about something I am powerless to change. 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

In the end, it probably doesn't matter what's in a country's Covid regulations, as a country doesn't need to have detailed regulations to enforce what they feel is needed to keep their citizens safe right now.  Iceland in July and August certainly threw some monkey wrenches to Viking Ocean regarding Covid and quarantine procedures.  It has some fairly clear Covid regulations, but of course, they're generic in nature and don't specifically cover cruisers, or tours, or things that affect people on cruises.  From what I could tell, their interpretation of the word "contact" in July was different from Viking's, and this caused a lot of grief.  If you traveled on an excursion coach with someone who tested positive, everyone on the coach was considered in contact with a positive person and had to quarantine on the ship.  That was not Viking's policy, but Iceland's.  

 

I'm just happy to be able to cruise again.  The ships are safer now, and even if I have to take a ship's excursion, it's better than staying on the ship and just seeing a port!  We took ship excursions in Iceland (six different ports, I believe), and saw and did a lot. 

 

 

[cruisemom42]

8 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

Sorry, but I can't go around in circles with something I do not have any power to affect.  It doesn't matter where the edict comes from.  It is in place.  There is nothing I can do about it.  I would much prefer it to NOT be in force, but it is.  Don't have the time to do research to find a source.  Or to yell into the void about something I am powerless to change. 

 

Sorry that I seem to have gotten your back up for some reason.  There are some -- and I am among them -- who think the information might be useful if one would like to know whether there is any ending date on the decree or date at which it will be reconsidered, as with the CDC guidelines. Or at least know where to check (and thanks @steamboats for sharing your info).  

 

It is useful to me as one who wouldn't consider taking a cruise in the Med while shore excursion restrictions are in place. I am currently looking at 2022 and 2023 itineraries, but want to have as much info at hand as possible before I book.

[ECCruise]

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Sorry that I seem to have gotten your back up for some reason.  There are some -- and I am among them -- who think the information might be useful if one would like to know whether there is any ending date on the decree or date at which it will be reconsidered, as with the CDC guidelines. Or at least know where to check (and thanks @steamboats for sharing your info).  

 

It is useful to me as one who wouldn't consider taking a cruise in the Med while shore excursion restrictions are in place. I am currently looking at 2022 and 2023 itineraries, but want to have as much info at hand as possible before I book.

I see your point. But you are looking far into the future.  The current end date is 31 October.  No idea whether or not it will be extended.

 

I am concentrating on the 38 days on ships (some in Italy, some elsewhere) in the next month and a half where I am directly affected by the mandate.  I've been to every one of the Italian ports numerous times, almost always with a car rental (which I also cannot do now) so to have to schedule a ship excursion there is no big deal. Some new things to see, perhaps.

 

[roothy123]

7 hours ago, steamboats said:

BTW, this is the latest decreto valid since Oct 26th til Dec 15th. It does not mention cruises but there are a couple of older decretos which are still valid. So I don´t know whether the one mentioning cruises is still valid or not.

 

steamboats

Thanks for posting this.  I'm having trouble getting a translation (more recent document - maybe actual decretos are in pdf form?), but will try again later.  I can live with some changes to how I travel, but like to know as much as I can find out before doing so!  And while something that expires in December doesn't affect me, we all know that those things can be extended.

[steamboats]

Sorry, I don´t have it as pdf.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

25 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

I see your point. But you are looking far into the future.  The current end date is 31 October.  No idea whether or not it will be extended.

 

CDC guidelines have been extended with modifications til Jan 15th, 2022.

 

steamboats

Edited October 28, 2021 by steamboats

[ECCruise]

3 minutes ago, steamboats said:

 

CDC guidelines have been extended with modifications til Jan 15th, 2022.

 

steamboats

Not sure what the CDC guidelines have to do with the mandate in Italy. 

[zdcatc12]

3 hours ago, ECCruise said:

Not sure what the CDC guidelines have to do with the mandate in Italy. 

Probably showing how stuff like this can be extended.

[ECCruise]

13 minutes ago, zdcatc12 said:

Probably showing how stuff like this can be extended.

Apples and oranges.

[steamboats]

5 hours ago, ECCruise said:

Not sure what the CDC guidelines have to do with the mandate in Italy. 

 

I was not sure which guidelines you were talking about as those of Italy ended Oct 25th and the new ones started Oct 26th (and are valid til Dec 15th). There's nothing which ended Oct 31st. If you're talking about NCL then Oct 31st is related to the Conditional Sailing Order of the CDC which has been extended so NCL will extend their guidelines too.

 

steamboats

[ECCruise]

6 minutes ago, steamboats said:

 

I was not sure which guidelines you were talking about as those of Italy ended Oct 25th and the new ones started Oct 26th (and are valid til Dec 15th). There's nothing which ended Oct 31st. If you're talking about NCL then Oct 31st is related to the Conditional Sailing Order of the CDC which has been extended so NCL will extend their guidelines too.

 

steamboats

I can see nothing in that directive that addresses either "cruises" or "shore excursions"

 

My sources in Italy have told me specifically that they are barred from doing any private arrangements and that directive is through 31 October.  They do not, however, know if that will be extended. 

[steamboats]

10 hours ago, ECCruise said:

I can see nothing in that directive that addresses either "cruises" or "shore excursions"

 

That´s what I said... there is nothing in the new one... but there´s still the old one which I quoted earlier (article 53 No. 5). And there is no specific end date for that one.

 

Italy might reconsider the regulation by the end of this month (actually today) but looking at the rising numbers in Europe I doubt it.

 

steamboats

[christinthompson]

On 10/29/2021 at 2:05 AM, steamboats said:

 

That´s what I said... there is nothing in the new one... but there´s still the old one which I quoted earlier (article 53 No. 5). And there is no specific end date for that one.

 

Italy might reconsider the regulation by the end of this month (actually today) but looking at the rising numbers in Europe I doubt it.

 

steamboats

Do we have any update on if the restrictions were extended?

 

Thanks! 

[steamboats]

15 hours ago, christinthompson said:

Do we have any update on if the restrictions were extended?

 

So far no news... Meaning I haven´t read anything that free shore tours are allowed now in Italy.

 

steamboats

Edited November 3, 2021 by steamboats

[Alaskanb]

On 9/23/2021 at 9:33 AM, Oceangoer2 said:

You are such a travel expert...really appreciate your help and knowledge.  Would have trouble with DH hiking...back issues.  Trying to choose excursions he can manage and if it's walking, he won't mind waiting at a local cafe while I explore.

Us too! Quite a challenge deciding what to do.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Alaskanb

[cruisemom42]

My sister and BIL are just completing a Med cruise on NCL that had several stops in Italy over the last few days. They found that while NCL (and Italy) required passengers to take ship-sponsored tours, the powers-that-be did not appear to be too regimented about how the tour was conducted. For example, they were able to book an "on your own" visit to Pompeii through the cruise line and they were, in fact, allowed to just walk around on their own. 

 

That could be because Pompeii is a mainly outdoors experience, but just reporting what they encountered.

 

[steamboats]

17 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

They found that while NCL (and Italy) required passengers to take ship-sponsored tours, the powers-that-be did not appear to be too regimented about how the tour was conducted.

 

That´s widely reported on the NCL board... NCL seems to have a different way of interpreting "bubble" shore tours. BTW, same for Capri... You can just walk around.

 

steamboats